£625
MODERN MADE | Modern Art & Post-War Design | 636
Auction: 30 April 2021 at 11:00 BST
with suspended drops
Provenance:
The current vendor purchased these earrings directly from the artist around 1955. The owner had been at the Central School of Arts in the 1950s and had known Davie, and bought two pairs of these earrings. She kept one pair for herself and gave another pair to a friend at the Central School for her 21st birthday. The latter pair sold in the last edition of Modern Made in October 2020, and were stamped 'JAD'.
Although primarily considered a painter, through the 1940s and 1950s, Alan Davie was also renowned as an avant-garde jewellery designer, and it is through the making and selling of silver jewellery designs that he supported some of his early painting career.
From 1953 to 1956 he taught on the Design course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. The principal of the Central School, Edward Johnston, asked Davie to teach on the jewellery course, with the aim of influencing the students to take a more artistic approach to their work. Prior to this point, Davie had already shown interest in the field, having studied painting and silversmithing at Edinburgh College of Art, where he won a travelling scholarship to Italy.
Throughout the period Davie was influenced by early Renaissance art and had an appreciation for pre-Columbian goldwork which came through in the strong and simple forms of his jewellery designs. His works were clearly successful, and sold through shops such Aspreys and Harrods, as well as to private clients. Alongside this he also made the jewellery worn by Vivien Leigh for the production of Anthony and Cleopatra.
Davie went on to exhibit his work at the ground-breaking International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery, organised by the Company of Goldsmiths and the V&A in 1961. The exhibition aimed to establish jewellery as an artistic form and position makers as ‘artist-craftsmen’ to 'stimulate public interest in jewellery as an art and to encourage British designers in this field', something that Davie and his jewellery accomplished.